Not a Single Friend, Huh?

Hm. Nothing there.

My body was plummeting.

It wasn't a frame built to die ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from a fall, but in my current state — far from peak condition — I'd probably take some real damage on impact.

“Levitate.”

The gravity that had been slamming me toward the ground simply vanished.

There I was, floating suspended in midair.

Not even enough mana left to hold the spell.

Thud.

“Hoo…”

A mountain made of a dragon's remains.

Once the chaos had settled, the smoke that had fouled the sky cleared away, and sunlight began pouring down onto the ground again. I sat there for a while, staring blankly at the place where the light was rising.

It was always this same view after taking down an ancient monster.

Me, standing — or sitting — atop a massive corpse, watching the sun come up. No matter how badly I wanted to quit it all and walk away, sooner or later I'd come back to myself standing on some monster's carcass.

And I would be grateful.

Thank goodness I wasn't too late this time.

“Donations will open once the schedule's done. First, the finale—”

Piing~

Thwack.

“?”

An arrow.

A green arrow, resting far too naturally in my hand.

Looking closer, the Blue Team users down below were attacking me. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠One archer was firing her bow while two warrior-class players charged toward me.

In my current, less-than-perfect state, this could actually be a dangerous situ—

Dangerous? For them?

I hurled my hammer at the oncoming warrior.

Warrior No. 1 retired on the spot, erased without a trace by the hammer's flight.

Hm. So that's Ruin.

So the Blessing carries Raizaka's power.

At the sight of his companion vanishing in an instant, Warrior No. 2's resolve visibly wavered. Any sane person would have given up and run — but whether it was because he still had a spare life, or simply because this was a practice match, he charged straight at me anyway.

The archer loosed several more arrows as well.

I flipped my spear around and held it reversed.

“Like this, then…”

CRUNCH.

VMMMM.

“...?!”

Ruin.

KRA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KOOM!

Everything in my vicinity became one with the ground.

■

The first scrimmage after the boss hunt ended on a somewhat anticlimactic note.

The balance had already collapsed the moment I ate the dragon at level 3. Attacking me while ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I was exhausted from the kill had been a sharp, astute call — the gap in power was simply too extreme.

I traveled straight to the Blue Team's castle, lightly dispatched their Lv. 5 Grand General, and smashed the Core. The Core turned out to be a pale yellow gem; the Extreme Dragon's Blessing didn't work on it, but a bit of enthusiastic hammering did the trick.

Around the same time, the Purple Team's castle fell as well.

Apparently, the moment Devil got his hands on the Blessing, he charged into the Purple Team's territory like some vengeful yaksha. Even with the Blessing of the Extreme Dragon, facing four Generals of similar level would normally be a stretch — but the enemy castle had only two Generals guarding it, and more importantly, neither of them was a ranker.

Devil, with his superior specs and ranker credentials, carving through them was the natural, foregone conclusion.

And just like that, the match was over.

“Good work out there, everyone.”

“I don't feel like we did any work at all…”

Redberry shook her head with a dazed expression.

She had placed her hopes in Lily — playing defensively through the siege while watching my stream. When I'd announced I would openly challenge Raizaka, she'd thought it reckless. Even if I had beaten Vlack and was the hottest rising newcomer of the moment, wasn't that far too much arrogance?

Raizaka was the kind of raid that demanded teams of even the most exceptional rankers. The only people capable of soloing it were the single-digit rankers, with levels and buffs pushed to their absolute limits. In fact, during the second Siege Warfare, Leo had entered a solo attempt at Raizaka to turn around her team's losing fight. Footage of that supposedly impossible kill was still a hot topic, and it remained the single biggest reason Leo held the title of unofficial Rank 1 — excluding Sword God.

But still…

The breath was dodged. Ruin was blocked. Power gathered for a single decisive strike.

What she had first dismissed as pure recklessness gradually began to feel, as the fight wore on, like... could she actually?

Redberry had hastily pooled her resources and bought a few buffs.

Of course, even that left her without a prayer. Compared to Lily, Raizaka was simply too vast, too powerful. Adding one or two to ten doesn't beat a thousand.

Who IS this person, seriously?

But Lily had won. She had won — and Redberry couldn't even explain how.

“Hmm…”

The stares were starting to pool on me — from my teammates and from the viewers alike, everyone wore the same stunned expression at my performance.

But what I'd pulled off was, at its core, a gamble made without a single thought for what came after. In reality, I could neither exert that much power nor afford to ignore the consequences. Just now, Generals who were ordinary Lv. 1~2 users had attacked an exhausted me, so I'd handled it easily — but real opponents would be high-caliber rankers who'd stacked their levels properly. If I were attacked just before finishing the dragon, or had it stolen from me, things would get very ugly indeed.

“...I think you're all misunderstanding something. I couldn't hunt it like this in a real match. You'd need to double your level from where we are now, at least.”

“Killing it at Lv. 6 is already problematic, though.”

“Agreed.”

“......”

“I suppose ordinary users won't cut it, then.”

Vlack said this while glancing around at the open air. He had a point — with a team made entirely of rankers, even a reckless gamble of a play like mine lands effectively. But the opponents we'd face would be of equal caliber or better. Fighting like this probably wouldn't even count as practice.

“I'll ask my guildmates for help. There should be a few of them lazing around at this hour. Ah — by any chance, is there anyone around here who's quite skilled, perhaps?”

At his question — essentially, can you call anyone you know? — everyone held their silence.

Devil's penalty kept him from the kind of personality that forges connections, and I'd only started playing recently, so the only rankers I knew were Yena and Leo. And we obviously couldn't call the enemy team over.

That left Redberry, and...

“What?”

Her head snapped around sharply.

Hm... nothing there, huh.

For some reason, it made my heart ache a little.

“...Could you please not look at me like that? It's not that I don't have friends — I know plenty of people, I just don't know many rankers—”

“I understand.”

“No, you don't.”

“It's okay.”

Now the memory has blurred, but there was a time when I, too, had almost no one. After possessing Lily's body, I ended up in an environment where connections formed whether I wanted them or not — but there's nothing strange about not having them. The world is full of so many different people, so many different races. Someone like Redberry is completely ordinary.

“...Well then, from now on, be her friend or something.”

Redberry muttered to herself, kicking listlessly at the dirt with the toe of her shoe. A laugh slipped out of me at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the sight.

“Sure. Let's be friends.”

“...What? I was joking.”

“I wasn't.”

You're not seriously going to refuse at this point, are you?

“...I'm only asking because I have to — it's not out of pity, right?”

“Of course not. I don't judge people by things like that.”

People, I don't judge.